Gomez — How We Operate (2 May, 2006)≡°≡ U nás najdeš obdobu v kapele “Bratři v triku”, tedy té měkčí, protože u nás jsou dvě se stejným názvem. Lehčí ident: té, co byla nominována a letos zahrála v JazzDocku. British five−piece combo of ’90s & ’00s with a distinctly American blues−soaked indie rock veneer.Location: Southport, UKAlbum release: 2 May 2006 (US, Australia) / 5 June 2006 (UK)Recorded: RAK Studios, LondonRecord Label: ATO Records (US)/Shock Records (Australia)/Independiente (UK)Duration: 51:45Tracks:01 Notice 4:0202 See the World 4:0403 How We Operate 5:2604 Hamoa Beach 3:3505 Girlshapedlovedrug 4:0106 Chasing Ghosts with Alcohol 3:4207 Tear Your Love Apart 4:0708 Charley Patton Songs 5:1409 Woman! Man! 4:0510 All Too Much 4:3311 Cry on Demand 4:2212 Don’t Make Me Laugh 4:34Personnel:≡°≡ Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar)≡°≡ Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards)≡°≡ Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar)≡°≡ Olly Peacock (drums)≡°≡ Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica)Credits:≡°≡ Ian Ball Group Member≡°≡ Paul Blackburn Group Member≡°≡ Katherine Bottenill Vocals≡°≡ Adrian Bushby Engineer, Mixing≡°≡ John Dunne Digital Editing≡°≡ Ben Frost Drum Programming≡°≡ Gomez Producer≡°≡ Tom Gray Group Member, Guitar, Vocals≡°≡ Philip Krohnengold Accordion, String Arrangements≡°≡ Bob Ludwig Mastering≡°≡ Gil Norton Audio Production, Mixing, Producer≡°≡ Ben Ottewell Group Member, Guitar, Vocals≡°≡ Olly Peacock Group Member≡°≡ Robbie Nelson Assistant EngineerDescription:≡°≡ Gomez are a five−piece British act consisting of Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar), Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar), Olly Peacock (drums), and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica). Emerging during a time in which the majority of up−and−coming British bands were either retro−pop (a la Oasis), trip−hop (Portishead), or space rock (the Verve, Radiohead), Gomez were one of the few to feature bluesy influences. The Southport boys' debut for Virgin Records, Bring It On, received praise from rock critics on both sides of the Atlantic and received the distinguished Mercury Music Prize for 1998's Album of the Year, edging out such stiff competition as Massive Attack's Mezzanine and the Verve's Urban Hymns.≡°≡ Liquid Skin Gomez completed an inaugural U.S. tour opening for Eagle−Eye Cherry in October 1998, while the press still offered praise (Spin magazine called Bring It On "a damn beautiful album," giving it an eight out of ten rating). Liquid Skin followed one year later and went platinum in England, and the rarities/B−sides compilation Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline appeared in 2000. A third studio album, In Our Gun, was released in spring 2002. Another hiatus saw Ian Ball relocating to Los Angeles while still working with the band at its new studio in Portslade, England. The dozens of tracks recorded during this time were whittled down and fashioned into Split the Difference, released in May of 2004. By that time, Hut, the group's original label, had gone under, leaving Gomez signed to Virgin (Hut's distributor). Despite all the critical acclaim, the band's album sales never seemed to match Virgin's expectations, and the two sides parted ways later that year.≡°≡ Out West In 2005, Gomez signed with ATO Records and released Out West, the group's first live album. How We Operate arrived in May 2006, and the band rounded out the year by assembling a retrospective collection of singles, rarities, and unreleased tracks entitled Five Men in a Hut: Singles 1998−2004. Gomez's members were spread across two continents by this point, leading to a three−year gap between How We Operate and the band's sixth studio release, A New Tide, parts of which were recorded individually by the various bandmates and then merged online. Ben Ottewell took some time after its release to launch a solo career, with 2011’s Shapes & Shadows marking his first major release outside of the band. Months later, the band released another studio album, Whatever’s on Your Mind, with Phantom Planet's Sam Farrar sharing production duties with the bandmates themselves.Trivia:≡°≡ Ben Ottewell wrote How We Operate the same morning he wrote Blackbird off his solo album Shapes and shadows, and was quoted saying “was quite a productive morning, I wish all hangovers were like that”.Awards:Billboard Albums≡°≡ 2006 How We Operate The Billboard 200#106≡°≡ 2006 How We Operate Top Heatseekers #1≡°≡ 2006 How We Operate Top Independent Albums #7≡°≡ 2006 How We Operate Top Internet Albums #106AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek;Score: ****≡°≡ How We Operate is Gomez’s first studio offering on the ATO imprint, and it’s a (mostly) quiet stunner. Produced by Gil Norton and recorded in London, the album is a deft collection of well−molded pop songs that sound of a piece. They’re full of ingenious little hooks, fine singing, poetics and to−the−point lyrics, and cool guitars. After popping this disc into the deck and hitting "play," it may be tempting to do a double−take at the cover for a moment, given the music the band has released in the past. But that sound — with Tom Gray's evocative voice at the front — is unmistakable. This is the sound of a band sitting around facing one another and concentrating on writing and executing songs that stand the test of time, using multiple songwriters of equal gift and merit. In five or ten years, How We Operate will not sound any more dated than, say, Ronnie Lane's Anymore for Anymore; in other words, not at all. The world doesn't shatter with this set, the vision of rock's future salvation (a load of crap they were shouldered with by the manic, next−big−thing−of−the−week of Brit music tabloids with their debut Bring It On) from its current dregs — how else could a record by Wolfmother actually get released and promoted? — doesn't occur. But what does is that this quintet, who has so gradually come into its own via a stubborn insistence on sticking to its own principles, has grown immeasurably and become a unit of utter confidence and consistent vision that insists on excellence and will settle for nothing less. Gomez's adherence to the principles of good songwriting craft — melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrical economy — serves them, and ultimately the listener, in spades. This is not some weepy, introspective sheaf of tunes that are full of overburdened metaphors stretched to the breaking point. The opener, "Notice," begins quietly and unhurriedly, with an acoustic guitar, a whispering bassline, and a brushed snare, as the vocalist tells an expressionistic story about opportunity, wasted, grasped, reckoned with in both life and love, with lies told, ignored in denial, and forgotten. The electric guitars kick in on the chorus, and the drums begin to pop. The verse is repeated and eventually comes to a ringing series of crescendos that are restrained yet powerful enough to hold the listener in its grip. "See the World" could have been written by R.E.M. before they started bullsh*tting and thinking they were more than they were. One can also hear an optimistic Jay Farrar in here. The bright, down−home acoustic guitars, the "sha−la−la" chorus, the exhortation to go out and get more from life, and the gorgeous meld of electric guitars and backing vocals are simply a joy to listen to. This doesn't mean there aren't rockers here. Far from it. Tracks such as "Hamoa Beach" that start out acoustically develop into sonically overdriven forays into margin−challenging guitar pyrotechnics. "Girlshapedlovedrug" has a hook to die for in its intro, and the volume level continues to rise from there without the harmonically taut, bright, sparkling Ottwell vocals and ramped−up six−strings. "Cry on Demand" has a knotty, angular lyric line, but rounds itself in the rollicking chorus and between verse fills. "Charley Patton Song," doesn't deal with the blues whatsoever, despite its title. Instead, there is an atmospheric, floating, dreamy quality to its sophisticated verse structure that never leaves out the end−of−line hook. There are strange sounds in its background that sound like a cembalom or hammered dulcimer chiming above the rest of the instruments, and a simple organ line that shimmers underneath it all. The bridge changes the nature of the entire track, Gomez pretends to let the tension out of the bag for a short bit and enters into dissonant interplay between drums and detuned guitars. The album almost whispers to a close on "Don’t Make Me Laugh," where a gentle country groove unhurriedly glides in and offers the singer a breezy window to observe his unwillingness to compromise himself for another opportunity with a lost love. There are rock overtones that begin to bleed in the instrumental bridge, tension once more rises before being given the air to breathe and float away as the cut comes to a leisurely close amid almost jaunty strings and a slide playing in the high register. How We Operate is strong, focused, and a complete pleasure to engage; its maturity and confidence is beyond anything they’ve released thus far, and the experimentalism brought into play on their other albums is here, though the textures, tempos, and frameworks are significantly other. Above all, this is most certainly a Gomez record, one they couldn't possibly have created earlier; its maturity and confidence offer a new dimension to a sound that's already full of complexity, paradox, and a pronounced, now intractable, identity. ≡°≡ http://www.allmusic.com/Website: http://www.gomeztheband.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gomezLyrics:“How We Operate”1.) Calm down And get straight It’s in our eyes It’s how we operate2.) You’re true You are I’d apologize but it won’t go very far3.) Please come here Come right on over And when we collide we’ll see what gets left over4.) A little joy A little sorrow And a little pride so we won’t have to borrow Wherever you lead, I’ll follow5.) Turn me inside out and upside down And try to see things my way Turn a new page, tear the old one out And I’ll try to see things your way6.) Please come here Please come on over There is no line that you can’t step right over Without you well I’m left hollow So can we decide to try a little joy tomorrow ‘Cos baby tonight I’ll follow7.) Turn me inside out and upside down And try to see things my way Turn a new page, tear the old one out And I’ll try to see things your way8.) The way that we’ve been speaking now I swear that we’d be friends, I swear ‘Cos all these little deals go down with Little consequences, we share, we share9.) Turn me inside out and upside down And try to see things my way Turn a new page, tear the old one out And I’ll try to see things your way10.) And I’m gonna love you anyway Try to see things your way Try to see things your way Try to see things your way_____________________________________________________________